Anyway, the next day was much better because we drove through LA and headed into the desert. This reminded me that I should really get the AC in my car fixed. I wish I had thought of that before this trip because the last hour or two got pretty wicked hot in my car. We were cruising down the freeway old-school style, with the windows rolled down, and everything blowing around inside the car, and we were still sweating like crazy. We made it into the park early enough to claim a pretty rockin' campsite though. Check it out. We positioned the tent so that it was protected from the morning sun by huge boulders on the eastern side of the campsite. This kept our tent in the shade until almost 9am, so we were able to sleep in much longer than the losers who picked campsites without giant boulders to the east. Can I just say that I totally know my shit when it comes to nature?!
That same day, we went on a short hike in the late afternoon. We got a late start because we had to go back into town to buy groceries and water. And also, we hit up the Subway for foot-longs. Mighty tasty. Since I had forgotten my Joshua Tree guidebook at home, we picked a random hike that showed up on the map that was posted at our campground. We didn't know the name of the hike, or anything about it for that matter, but we figured it was getting late, and beggars can't be choosers. So we set off, not really knowing where we were going or what we would see. When we came to a fork in the trail, I let my brother pick which way to go. Of course he picked the crazy uphill route, so I was cursing him. That is, until we came to the top of a ridge where there was the most amazing clearing. It was a flat, open space in between two mountains, kind of like a shelf sticking out over a huge valley below. There was an actual tree in the middle of this clearing, which is cool because there are barely any trees in the whole park. Also, there was an open mine shaft that went almost straight down into the ground for about 100 feet. From the looks of it, some miners attempted to find gold there, but all they found was limestone, so they abandoned the hole and moved on. Keep in mind, there was no fence or anything around this deep hole in the ground, and it was about 6 feet in diameter. We had definitely wandered off of the main trail at this point, but not very far, so we were impressed that the mine shaft was just left open like that. After enjoying the view from the clearing for a bit, we were just about to head back over some boulders to the trail, when I noticed this strange cluster of rocks that looked like a good protected spot. When I looked closer, I realized that there were two steps leading up to these boulders. I moved in closer to look behind the bushes, and saw that this natural boulder formation had been made into a house - probably by the same miners who dug the shaft! The gaps between the boulders had been filled in with rocks and mortar and there was a doorway supported by wooden beams. Again, there was no sign to indicate the presence of this old house, nor was ther a fence around it to keep people like us out. So we wandered inside the house and found that there were all kinds of old, rusted metal cups and tools, a fireplace built out of rocks and mortar, as well as a window and some shelves. Everything was really well preserved, so I guess that not a lot of hikers found this place. It was so cool because it felt like we were the first to discover this little mining outpost, and it felt like we were transported back in time to the gold rush.
The next day we hiked out to a fan palm oasis called "Lost Palms Oasis". It's about 4 miles each way through the rolling hills and sandy washes of the Colorado desert portion of the park. (Joshua Tree NP is interesting because two different deserts - the Mohave and the Colorado - converge within the park boundaries. The western portion of the park is part of the Mohave desert, which lies mostly around 4000 ft above sea level and is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. The Mohave desert is also the only place where Joshua Trees grow. The eastern portion of the park is a swath of the Colorado desert, which is mostly around 2000 ft above sea level and is one of the most arid deserts in the western hemisphere.) So the Lost Palms Oasis is in the non-Joshua-tree part of the park. But that's ok because there are lots of other weird plants to check out along the trail, like the ocotillo trees, and the cholla cacti.
The oasis itself is actually in a canyon below the trail, and you have to scramble down a set of switchbacks and crumbly rocks to get there. It's nice and cool amongst the trees, and there is a stream of water that runs through the canyon. I can only imagine how awesome this place must have been for the people that previously lived in the area, before the advent of air conditioning and running water (which by the way, the park does not have). I, of course, forgot my hiking boots at home, so I had to hike in my Chaco sandals the whole weekend. Luckily, these are some mighty rugged sandals. Unluckily, the sunscreen that I put on the tops of my feet crapped out on me and I got sunburned in nice Chaco-shaped formations. After that hike, we took the long way back to our campsite: we exited the park at the southern end and made our way into Palm Desert, which for the record is a totally lame town. But they do have a DQ, and that is exactly what we were looking for. Two enormous choco-caramel sundaes later, we headed back into the park for the night.
The next day would be our last full day in J-Tree, so we decided to do two hikes. A short one in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. The morning hike was through the "Wonderland of Rocks" to some formations known as the "AstroDomes", where we were hoping to watch some climbers tackle some of the tallest climbs in the park. Of course, no one was there. What a bunch of wussies. We scrambled around on the rocks a bit, and then headed back. The second hike that day was a six mile loop over a rocky mountain, through a rock maze, and then out a sandy wash. It took us literally 45 minutes to find the freakin' trailhead here because the directions in the hiking book that we bought bore no resemblance to the actual area. It was probably 4:30pm when we finally got on the trail. We hiked over some cool rocky hills, and then finally over a killer hill where we could see the entire 29 Palms valley and then some. At the bottom of this mountain, we lost the trail again, and had to retrace our steps until we were sure that we had found the right wash to follow. All the washes look like trails, so it's really easy to get tricked into wandering the wrong way for a long time. Finally we made it to the rock maze, which was kind of like the maze in the move Labyrinth with David Bowie. My brother and I watched that movie like a million times when we were little, so it was a special bonding moment for us. We couldn't really linger very long though because the weather had shifted and a mean wind had kicked up. The sun was still up, but it was getting low in the sky. We still had 3 miles to go, and we were on the shadow side of the mountain, with this raging wind that was so cold that our arms started going numb. The rest of the trail was pretty non-eventful so we started to pick up the pace so we could get back to the car. I swear, at one point I was jogging (in my sandals) to try and warm up. But it was no use. We took another wrong turn and had to backtrack again. This trail would have been really awesome if it had the occasional signpost to point the way. We finally made it back to the car just as the sun was about to set. We ran the heater for 5 minutes before either of us could move our fingers enough to grip the steering wheel, and even after that, it took another half hour before I regained normal movement in my hands. But we had made it back before it got dark, so we were happy. That night was really cold, and the wind whipped around the tent and kept waking us up, but all in all it was a good end to a good weekend in the desert, and we managed to have nice weather until the very end.
